OTTAWA — It certainly is an intriguing choice to scratch your fourth-leading scorer in favour of a guy who has yet to score once this season.

But that’s the situation the Canucks found themselves in Wednesday.

This NHL season, as has been mentioned numerous times before, is about building a team for next year as much as it is about this year.

With that in mind, the season started with the question of “who can play with Elias Pettersson?”

Nikolay Goldobin got the first look. It’s been a long look. But with last month’s addition of Josh Leivo and the recent return from injury of Sven Baertschi, Goldobin has been featured less and less on Pettersson’s left wing.

He’s mostly played with Bo Horvat when not playing with Pettersson, but on Monday in New Jersey, he found himself on the fourth line with Jay Beagle and Tyler Motte.

The speculation about Goldobin’s future with the Canucks has been a slow burn for a while, especially after Leivo was acquired. And with Goldobin being scratched in favour of the goalless Tim Schaller against the Senators Wednesday, the same day speculation began to brew in the national media that the Canucks may be looking to trade him, the fire started roaring.

Goldobin is a young player who has been a solid offensive contributor this season, so it seems a far-fetched notion that he’ll simply land on waivers in the next day or two, even if the Canucks need to find a roster spot for Brandon Sutter, who is set to return to the lineup after recovering from a separated shoulder.

Though he wasn’t asked specifically about Goldobin, Canucks GM Jim Benning saying on an afternoon conference call that the team was exploring all options to create a spot for Sutter, that he could make further trades (after moving out Anders Nilsson), kept the speculation train humming.

And Canucks coach Travis Green said before Wednesday’s game that while there are lots of positives to Goldobin’s game, the winger has been making too many mistakes and has lacked consistency in his effort.

“You can’t just be a rush player in this league,” Green said. “Goldy has good hands. He can see the ice when he has open ice, but he also has to be able to get the puck back as well.”

What he saw in the first period from Goldobin on Monday didn’t please him, even if Green later shifted Goldobin to the Horvat line.

“I thought when I put Goldy with (Jay) Beagle, I thought it would be pretty obvious of the kind of game that he has to play when he’s with that line,” he said.

“It’s no secret the first goal we have a turnover and lost coverage in our zone,” Green added, pointing to the first Devils goal that saw Brian Boyle outmuscle Goldobin in front of the net before pouncing on a rebound.

“I want a young player to embrace (the challenge), I want him to show you ‘I can do this.’”

In October, the coach said he was happy with how Goldobin had progressed in training camp as well as how he performed after being called up to finish the 2017-18 season.

The message now is different.

“It’s one thing for players to make mistakes. I can live with that, I’ve said that before,” Green said. “But you don’t want to see the same mistakes being made. There are certain parts of his game he has to get better at and he understands that. I hope he turns the corner and I hope he can improve in those areas.”

The coach said there are several issues for Goldobin: His work along the boards, his work on the forecheck and his work away from the puck.

“We’ve shown him a lot of clips,” Green added. “I showed him in a clip in Calgary where he races in on the breakaway and his speed was great. Yet we showed him another clip of him on the forecheck and it wasn’t the same speed. And that’s part of it.

” … To win in this league, you’ve got to be going. You’ve got to skate. You have to take away time and space. You can’t just wait for time and space. The onus falls on the player. He needs to make an effort to get the job done.”

Green said his concerns about Goldobin’s defensive work meant he no longer felt confident playing him with the likes of Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

“I can’t have that line where I’m afraid to put him on the ice because I’ve got three young guys who have deficiencies in their own zone,” he said.

“He can’t just be a player that plays with Petey. He’s got to be a player that I can put in different situations … I’ve talked to Brock about how I want him to be a player who I can put out in the last minute of the game. Those guys want that. (Goldobin)’s got to want to be that, too.”

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